Jailed Mexican activist Nestora Salgado has yet to see freedom two and a half years since she was arrested amid organizing a community police force in the violence-ridden state of Guerrero, but she was far from alone Sunday as family members and supporters gathered outside the prison to celebrate the community leader’s birthday and continue demanding her release.

Two years after community police force leader Nestora Salgado’s arrest on charges of kidnapping, the Renton woman still awaits her day in court.

Salgado returned to her hometown of Olinala, Mexico and took a leadership position in a community police force to address the growing level of crime, until she was arrested on charges of kidnapping. The arrest took place after the group arrested a town official on suspicion of theft. Salgado’s supporters say the community police force was sanctioned by the state, and that her arrest is politically motivated.

According to local newspaper Proceso, six witnesses against Salgado failed to appear in court to testify on the state charges against earlier this month.

“They didn’t show up and she cannot defend herself,” said Alejandra Gonza, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law who is helping Salgado with her case.

“She feels kind of angry. The state government (of Guerrero) says, ‘We have these victims.’ But when it comes time for court, nobody shows up,” Avila said.

“If you’re a victim, don’t you want to tell your story to the judge?” he said.

But while the absence of witnesses might get a case dismissed in the United States, the judge in Salgado’s case postponed the hearing, said co-counsel Thomas Antkowiak, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law. Salgado’s next court date is scheduled for Aug. 31.

“She hasn’t been convicted of anything — this is all pre-trial and she’s been in detention for two years,” Antkowiak said.

Leaders of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), a Mexican trade union whose leaders have been camped out at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City while in negotiations with the Secretary of the Interior, joined a demonstration in support of Nestora Salgado today. One of the banners which led the march was brought to Mexico by the delegates of the US Campaign to Free Nestora Salgado, an ex-comandante of the community police in Olinála, Guerrero. The families of other political prisoners and teachers marched to the Tepepan prison where Salgado is being held, after she was moved at the beginning of the week from a federal maximum security prison in Tepic, Nayarit. Spirits were high as she waved out the window of her hospital room.